As a Mini owner, Bruce is spot-on. Mine is accurate, a 1990's AWB version (state trooper version with the quaint "not for you civies" marking on it), and is utterly reliable. Saying a Mini-14 fails because it isn't a squirrel gun damns the AK as a deer rifle in exactly the same way. I save my 22 for squirrels and in the woods of Mississippi, 300 meter distances for shooting tiny critters doesn't happen. But shooting a beaver, coyote, rabid racoon, or hog at the ranges we face is easily in the realm of the Mini-14. $700 to make it a good shooter? I must have been lucky, mine already is.
Rifle shooters can be like urbanites when it comes to guns: they insist that guns have value only if they are suitable for their own locale - what's best for the prairie must by definition be best for woodlands. To some, a rifle that doesn't fit the desert 500 yard range cannot possibly be effective the the woods. Cities ban firearms because of the urban mentality, then take that mentality and force it on rural folk. I will never be on a prairie dog hunt. My firearms are intended for use in the wooded southeast. It is a carbine that can be shot by my son and has the same manual-of-arms as my LRB M14 (or Garand or M1 Carbine). As a result, the Mini-14 is imminently suited to the task. They are also popular in other places such as Alaska for their reliability in cold climates.
As to exploding POS, I've seen AR's go boom.